


Dominoes

by LadyAJ_13



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Character Death, Gen, Sort of an AU, the aftermath
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-03
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-19 21:21:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7377832
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyAJ_13/pseuds/LadyAJ_13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The face on the screen is worn, but they all are these days. He knows he finally looks his fifty plus years, and he certainly feels it more than ever. But this face has aged more than most, and while he's not quite pushing up to his chronologically ninety five, he's more shadows and pain now than at any point Tony's seen him. And doesn't that say something.</p>
<p>He wants to shut off the video. </p>
<p>“By now, I guess, I'm dead. Otherwise I would have intercepted this tape.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dominoes

**Author's Note:**

> This story is sort of an AU. It assumes to take place a few years after Cap 2, but mostly disregards the events of Avengers 2 and especially Cap 3. In this story, Steve found Bucky and brought him back to the tower, where he integrated with the other Avengers, getting his memories back and becoming one of the team. It is not a happy fic, though.

Its strange how little has changed. You would think the loss of their leader would tear a team apart, but those at war pull together again.

Personally, he knows, they've all taken a hit. Professionally, the Avengers lived on. Almost immediately.

“Tony.”

The face on the screen is worn, but they all are these days. He knows he finally looks his fifty plus years, and he certainly feels it more than ever. But this face has aged more than most, and while he's not quite pushing up to his chronologically ninety five, he's more shadows and pain now than at any point Tony's seen him. And doesn't that say something.

He wants to shut off the video.

“By now, I guess, I'm dead. Otherwise I would have intercepted this tape.”

Tony stifles an inappropriate snicker. It makes his eyes water. Barnes hadn't even been around for video tapes, but he always played up to grandpa stereotype by using out of date vocabulary.

“I suppose you can also guess why I did it. But I wanted to explain.”

Hair falls in the eyes of the man on screen – still long, even years after they got him out – and Tony scrubs one hand over his face.

“I couldn't do it without him. I could barely do it with him.” There's a short pause. “Live.”

Tony found himself nodding, even though there was no way Barnes would know his agreement – could ever know.

“Back at the beginning,” and that was what Barnes always called the period just after they got him out – after the carnage of the helicarriers but before things stabilised – back when he first came to Avengers Tower with Steve and despite Tony's best efforts at soundproofing Barnes would wake entire floors with his screaming. The beginning. “I wanted to give up.”

Tony wouldn't have blamed him. No one would have, not once they realised what the nightmares were about.

“Steve wouldn't let me.”

Well, of course not – that was Steve all over. Righteous, 'there's always something to live for' Steve.

“He said I couldn't leave him. That if I did, he'd follow me.”

His eyes snap back to the screen. Tony hasn't been watching the video – he can't keep looking at the pain in that face, normally so carefully concealed. There's the faintest hint of a smile echoing around the corners of Barnes' mouth.

“So I didn't. But then-”

Barnes cuts himself off. And Barnes might have used his shitty phone camera for the recording (not even a Stark model!) but there's a clear shine to his eyes that wasn't there before.

“And so,” he settles on, spreading his hands in front of him. “I found out about a new base, which is definitely worth checking out. I'm recording this, and then I'm going to go storm the place.” His tone is almost conversational again, like he's in the room, laying out their next move. Except this was one he took alone.

He eyes the camera, steel and iron. “I'll call you when I go in. You're near enough that you will reach me in nine minutes. That's enough time for me to take out most of whatever is in there, and blow the joint sky high. You'll mop up anything that comes crawling out, I'm sure.”

They had. Not that Barnes had left them much – just a couple of the outer sentries, which seems almost like a peace offering now Tony thinks about it. No way the Winter Soldier actually missed them.

“This should reach you when you get back.”

He's still half in his Iron Man suit, as a matter of fact, working on his right gauntlet for lack of a better way to keep his mind off-

“I've done a lot of things in my life that I'm sorry for, Tony. This isn't one of them. This was way overdue. But I am sorry to do this to you, and to the team. I know I'm not him.” He paused again. “But you accepted me into your home.”

Tony finally rips off the gauntlet and throws it to the floor. There's a screwdriver still poking out from where he was fiddling with wires, and he kicks it vicious, watches it skitter across the floor and slide under a workbench. Even now, _even now,_ Barnes thought he was just here as a friend of Steve.

“Well, that's it. I hope you don't dwell on this – it was the way it had to be. And its no one's fault.” There's a real smirk, now. “Although I know as well as anyone that if an Avenger can find a way to take something to heart, they will. Try not to, this time.”

There's another pause, as if Barnes might say something else, but he obviously changes his mind. His face and hair fill the screen as he leans forward, and the video turns to black.

“Did it ever occur to you Barnes,” Tony mutters across the still workshop, “that I actually preferred you to Saint Steve?” He sees again Barnes' broken body, blood smeared and floppy in all the wrong places as they pulled him from the wreckage. Feels the tug deep down in his gut again, followed by the twinge, somewhere near his old arc reactor scars. The sun is going down, and the light has slipped from the room. He pulls up a new internet window. “Jarvis,” he starts automatically, then stops. “Friday?”

“Yes sir.”

“Pull up the funeral file on Steven G. Rogers.” He slumps onto a stool. “Bucky liked those flowers.”

**Author's Note:**

> I found this really hard to title, and I'm still not happy with it. If anyone has a better suggestion, I'm all ears.


End file.
